Texas District Agrees to Alter Bible Course Curriculum

Last week the Ector County Independent School District, which serves the Odessa, Texas area, agreed to discontinue the Bible course curriculum it had previously adopted and to form a committee of local educators to develop a constitutionally acceptable curriculum for the course. According to the New York Times, a committee charged by the district to select materials for the elective course had originally decided to use the Bible Literacy Project curriculum, which adopts a secular instructional approach. However, the board rejected the committee's recommendation, opting instead for materials developed by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in the Public Schools (NCBCPS), which appears to promote Protestant Christianity and Biblical literalism. The NCBCPS website reports that its curriculum "has been voted into 430 school districts in 37 states" and that "[o]ver 221,500 students have already taken this course nationwide, on the high school campus, during school hours, for credit."

In a particularly damaging piece of evidence for the district, its director of curriculum and instruction reportedly responded to the board's choice with an email saying, "Take that, you dang heathens!"

JFB